All of the examples of laser damage that I've seen have been while shooting video. Has anyone ever heard of a sensor getting zapped while shooting still photos? I have no doubt that it's possible, but is laser damage at all likely with a relatively fast shutter speed?

All of the examples of laser damage that I've seen have been while shooting video. Has anyone ever heard of a sensor getting zapped while shooting still photos? I have no doubt that it's possible, but is laser damage at all likely with a relatively fast shutter speed?

I've heard plenty of groans from people with damaged sensors. Shutter speeds tend to be fairly long in dark venues, and the lasers only sweep across the sensor for a few hundredths of a second.

A issue is far more likely to happen when shooting video because the sensor is exposed all the time, while with stills, the shutter only opens for a short period. BUT ... If you snap a photo and the laser sweeps across your camera while the shutter is open, its toast.

I was not aware of this ... I've been to several shows, shooting video footage, while lots of laser beams blasting around ... looks like I was lucky that none of them reached my sensor ... henceforth, I'll be more careful ... thanks for sharing.

Yup, we see posts about this from time to time, its been happening for years, but a reminder every once in a while might prevent someone from having the issue.

A useful reminder to have, thanks.

Does anyone know what about the laser actually kills the sensor?

The energy transported with the LASER light is converted into heat if the light is absorbed by the chip. The heat might damage the structures on the chip consisting of the pixel structure and conducting signal lines.

The problem with movie mode and live view is that the chip is alltimes exposed to the light. If the image of a light source is intense enough you might heat up the chip structures to temperatures above spec. This might be around 100 degree Celsius.

LASERs are monochromatic and the light bundle is nearly parallel. The light is focused to one tiny spot - 1/1000 mm is possible - with a single lens, more with a well corrected lens. If the thermal energy cannot be removed by thermal conduction in the chip to the back or outer regions you have some pile up of thermal energy which means increased temperatures. The tiny structures made of different materials/material combinations mix by diffusion of atoms due to the heat.With blue light there might be another effect: Blue light consists of photons with higher energy per photon and these photons can damage structures directly - think about ultraviolett radiation which has again more energy per photon (=light quantum) and might damage biomolecules resulting in cancer generation!

If I have the sun in the frame I try to use the diaphragm control button to reduce the heat load on the sensor - this is one possible measure to reduce heat/high temperatures on sensor regions.

Is there any kind of filter that could be used to prevent this, or at least reduce the risk? I appreciate it would involve light loss, and therefore further darkening in an already dark environment, but maybe a polarising filter? It seems too high a risk otherwise :/

Is there any kind of filter that could be used to prevent this, or at least reduce the risk? I appreciate it would involve light loss, and therefore further darkening in an already dark environment, but maybe a polarising filter? It seems too high a risk otherwise :/

You can get very narrow filters to cut out a very specific wavelength, but they are VERY!!! expensive (thousand dollars plus) and you have to know the exact wavelength of the laser in use.... which is particularly problematic when they use different colors of lasers.... It would be a lot cheaper to buy a dozen T3is and throw them out if the sensor got ruined...

Is there any kind of filter that could be used to prevent this, or at least reduce the risk? I appreciate it would involve light loss, and therefore further darkening in an already dark environment, but maybe a polarising filter? It seems too high a risk otherwise :/

You can get very narrow filters to cut out a very specific wavelength, but they are VERY!!! expensive (thousand dollars plus) and you have to know the exact wavelength of the laser in use.... which is particularly problematic when they use different colors of lasers.... It would be a lot cheaper to buy a dozen T3is and throw them out if the sensor got ruined...

So I thank Canon for releasing the much criticized T5... Now we can buy a dozen cheap cameras and make FULL HD video with multiple cameras simultaneously. And if the event is over, while you exchange battery and card in a camera, still have 11 cameras more making recording. If one is damaged by laser beam, still has 11 cameras making recording. Thank you Canon for giving us options, even though some people prefer to own a camera 1DC alone that costs U.S. $11,999 to do everything.

Is there any kind of filter that could be used to prevent this, or at least reduce the risk? I appreciate it would involve light loss, and therefore further darkening in an already dark environment, but maybe a polarising filter? It seems too high a risk otherwise :/

You can get very narrow filters to cut out a very specific wavelength, but they are VERY!!! expensive (thousand dollars plus) and you have to know the exact wavelength of the laser in use.... which is particularly problematic when they use different colors of lasers.... It would be a lot cheaper to buy a dozen T3is and throw them out if the sensor got ruined...

Ah. You can get astro filters pretty cheaply, I guess it would be possible to find out if they matched the lasers... anyhow, I'll just stay away from nightclubs with my camera